What was the bet?

I have three problems with the $1 implementation.

1. I spend time organizing, promoting and running the tournaments. The IFPA is going to waste my time submitting the $1 after each tournament. Now I have to give them my credit card each time, subtract that from the prize fund and pay myself back. You might say that only takes 10 minutes, but that's time I could be doing something else, like putting up a Facebook post, or updating the event listing on our league website.

2. They won't give a pass to charity tournaments. Nothing like digging your hand into the pocket of people trying to raise money to support a local charity.

3. Although the $1 cash grab is "supposed" to grow the sport of pinball, I'm just not understanding how that's going to happen. The money is going into the pockets of the top players. The theory is that larger prize pools will generate more interest from sponsors, which leads to bigger prize pools (for their pockets) and the ultimate growth of pinball.

My issue is that I've never hear of anyone saying "Wow, the top prize for the Master's Golf Tournament is $1.9 million. I'm going to go join a golf league."

If they would have said, we'll be using the $1 to promote local tournaments in your area. Or the $1 will be used for targeted Facebook advertising. That would be something I could get behind. Telling me that I need to collect, submit and account for $1 / person / event so they can stuff it in their pockets, isn't doing it for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying their shouldn't be some type of compensation for their time and effort. But then again, I pay back 100% of the take for all of my events and they have sponsors.

I suggested this back when this started. He shot it down because he said it would be too much work for him and he wanted the TDs to deal with it.

That really pissed me off.

Everyone that wants points goes to the IFPA website and pays $5. When I submit the results, it matches up the payment status of the player. If they paid they get points, if they don't, the system ignores their scores and moves on to the next player.

Then all I need to do is direct the players to the IFPA website and viola' it's done. I can spend my time growing my league and not their bottom line.

No it won't. I'm still not understanding why everyone thinks it will. New players show up because someone told them it's a good time, not because they saw on TV that if they beat the best player in the world that they will win $10,000.

Some new players go on to want to be that person who can hang with the best, but a lot decide it's just a fun way to spend an evening with friends.